New book, "Heavens on Earth", by Michael Shermer

Published last month. The full title is "Heavens on Earth: The Scientific Search for the Afterlife, Immortality, and Utopia". Courtesy of the SPR Facebook page, here's a review by Wray Herbert in the Washington Post:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/i...3ac90b6e63

There's quite a lot about Shermer's strange experience with a radio that had belonged to his wife's grandmother, which had apparently been broken but briefly started working again in circumstances that seemed significant to him. The odd thing is that rather than writing this off as a chance coincidence (an explanation which doesn't seem particularly unlikely to me) Shermer apparently speculates about the dead continuing to exist in "another dimension" and having the power to manipulate gravitational waves from wormholes to turn on radios. Such speculation is viewed as preferable to invoking "gods and preternatural forces" (though it's news to me that the known natural forces accommodate that kind of thing). Frankly, I think that if someone considers that a parsimonious explanation, it's a symptom of extreme bias at work in their thought processes.

Published last month. The full title is "Heavens on Earth: The Scientific Search for the Afterlife, Immortality, and Utopia". Courtesy of the SPR Facebook page, here's a review by Wray Herbert in the Washington Post:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/i...3ac90b6e63

There's quite a lot about Shermer's strange experience with a radio that had belonged to his wife's grandmother, which had apparently been broken but briefly started working again in circumstances that seemed significant to him. The odd thing is that rather than writing this off as a chance coincidence (an explanation which doesn't seem particularly unlikely to me) Shermer apparently speculates about the dead continuing to exist in "another dimension" and having the power to manipulate gravitational waves from wormholes to turn on radios. Such speculation is viewed as preferable to invoking "gods and preternatural forces" (though it's news to me that the known natural forces accommodate that kind of thing). Frankly, I think that if someone considers that a parsimonious explanation, it's a symptom of extreme bias at work in their thought processes.

A bit daft. He's doing the same as he accuses believers in the supernatural, reaching for answers.

In 2015, Shermer took part with Eben Alexander on the "Ask Dr Nandi show." Alexander apparently congratulated him on his courage and "open mindedness" in revealing the incident about the radio.

Shermer however informed him that both he and his (now) wife had found an explanation for the event. Alexander enquired as to what that explanation had been but (according to Alexander) Shermer didn't elaborate, only saying it couldn't have been supernatural.

 A link to Shermer's twitter account. https://twitter.com/michaelshermer/statu...5333261312

[Pollux]

There's quite a lot about Shermer's strange experience with a radio that had belonged to his wife's grandmother, which had apparently been broken but briefly started working again in circumstances that seemed significant to him. The odd thing is that rather than writing this off as a chance coincidence (an explanation which doesn't seem particularly unlikely to me) Shermer apparently speculates about the dead continuing to exist in "another dimension" and having the power to manipulate gravitational waves from wormholes to turn on radios.

"It's only real when it happens to me", is what he's saying. Everyone else is delusional.

In 2015, Shermer took part with Eben Alexander on the "Ask Dr Nandi show." Alexander apparently congratulated him on his courage and "open mindedness" in revealing the incident about the radio.

Shermer however informed him that both he and his (now) wife had found an explanation for the event. Alexander enquired as to what that explanation had been but (according to Alexander) Shermer didn't elaborate, only saying it couldn't have been supernatural.

 A link to Shermer's twitter account. https://twitter.com/michaelshermer/statu...5333261312

Easy to say that Shermer is far from balanced in his views, that's for sure. To treat those who do believe something is truly behind paranormal occurrences as below him in critical thinking and rationality is very arrogant to me. 

Through the article, it would seem Shermer is continuing to downplay any significance in parapsychology as "woo" and whatever else he calls it. Making the same claim his class of skeptics do: there is no conclusive proofs of an afterlife. Outside the New Ager crowd, I don't hear many people seriously invested in investigating the paranormal who go that far. They all say it can only be "strongly suggestive" at best. Honestly, this is a straw man if I ever saw one.  

In the end, he is caught speculating about alternative dimensions and wormholes, as if suddenly an afterlife seems probable to him. As far as I can gather, his main beef with the paranormal is it seems to trigger an association to religion and God to him. Now he has stopped seeing red, he can rationalize possibilities that go beyond the usual skeptic explanations, but that don't include the dreaded G word anywhere in it! Progress?

Courtesy of the SPR Facebook page, here's a not particularly favourable review of the book by Robin Carlile on the Magonia Review website:
http://pelicanist.blogspot.co.uk/2018/03...ching.html

Shermer's problem is he can only allow himself to explain things in terms of dimensions, forces, wormholes...as if any of this were fundamental.

Why would there be regularities consistent enough for a ghost to predictably manipulate forces? Heck, why are there regularities that allow us to manipulate our world?

Or to go deeper, what's a "force", gravitational or otherwise?

I'm not sure I understand where you are coming from?

A force is a way of understanding the transformation of something in spacetime... what bit's to fix, what bits to transform.

I still find that holding a permanent magnet in each hand and bringing them near to each other so that they repel each other an amazing demonstration of force.

To me explaining things the way Shermer does presupposes the fundamental nature of reality - or at least those parts of reality we have access to - is in accordance with the building blocks of physics or even more specifically of physicalism.

I don't disagree with your definition of force as a means of understanding, but I'm not convinced "force" or "energy" are extant in the way people usually presume? I'm thinking of Feynman noting definitions of force had a circularity to them - it's something that is observed in measurement and then claimed to be the cause of those measurements. Same with natural laws.